(no subject)

I have finished reading The Art of Fiction
Thus in the between-semesters break I managed to get through one whole book from the to-be-read pile
and that a one that would most usefully have been read at the beginning.


To be fair I also read a bunch from the library, about the specific plays, but my whole heap of books that were marked as being useful for the whole degree? Not being read very fast. Some of them turn out to be annoying, and some boring, and others I've skimmed through enough I feel I've got the point but I haven't technically read and getting the motivation to do so is increasingly difficult.

*shrugs*

I'll go read some more about plays now, or possibly the how to write a TV script book I had no college based reason for buying.

observation on Torchwood fic

Sometimes I read fic and it says 'Jack' but would make more sense to me in characterisation terms if it just said 'Owen'.

So I wonder, how much overlap do people see?

Because Jack at his worst has some rather nasty traits, but I didn't think he had the same nasty as Owen. Not quite. Owen's more about what Jack isn't.

But of course there's vast argument about if Owen is what I saw from 1-01 or... whatever the heck alternatives people see that I can't.



And a lot of how I see Jack boils down to me believing he's poly enough he just isn't wired the way all these monogamous fics seem to see. Which I have to admit is only likely, rather than proven.

Torchwood: Border Princes

So, started reading 'Border Princes'
am up to page 42

... let me get this straight:

somebody wrote Marty Stu fanfic
for money
that got published?

And it's clumsy clunky writing so far. Too impressed with verbal ingenuity - all that Captain Analogy bollocks. No individual character voice, none that shows up within Team Torchwood anyway.

People who've actually read it: Is there in fact reason to read the whole thing?

Is it some cunning plan Superstar type setup where this 'James' bloke is meant to be a WTF?
Or is he just the guy we've never heard of who is suddenly the heart of the team?




As of now I'm giving up on it and reading the other one. Odds of it staying given up on are fairly low, since I can't even seem to give up on fanfic series I hate loathe and detest. But right now this is not looking like a book I'll be glad to have spent money on.

Torchwood: Slow Decay

Started reading. So far it doesn't noticeably suck. yaays.

Jack is a bit moody/bitchy. At Owen, sometimes, so that works out. But he's saying things that to me would seem harsh even for his worst mood. And other stuff that don't seem right to me at all.

Nobody's Jack is Jack-in-my-head, is the thing. Even some episodes I get grumpy about.



I want to go sleep but I have possibly another two hours of awake left.



Also available information suggests I should have gone to college today to get my essays back, but I haven't. That isn't so much of teh good.

(no subject)

am still awake
the Torchwood book got good
despite being mostly about Owen and Gwen and Rhys

has a nice bit of theme about stuff that consumes you

has a ton of background about Owen. He tells the story of his life and cries. Aside from thinking that's terribly convenient it is interesting.

now I'm left to wonder the relative canonicity of the books, of course.




also my new highlighter pens are nifty

but not in the Torchwood book. regular fiction remains unhighlightered, thus far.

(no subject)

There was a thought I was having about Torchwood 1-04 (again)
some people were saying that, based on this evidence, Ianto is a really bad liar
because he looks nervous and when he says an excuse it isn't exactly smooth and it all seems to mostly work because the others aren't paying attention
and... okay, I can see that
but what I got from the episode is that we were in Ianto's point of view
of course we could see he was nervous, and lying, and all that
we were in his head

I guess it depends on what conventions you assume are being played within

Torchwood: Slow Decay

Is rather good.
Really, really, really gross.
but funny with it
and with a plot that makes sense
(though I predicted it from the start)
and twists and turns nicely
and tangles characters together and shows them off.

Jack isn't quite right early on, I thought.
There's a line at the end though about starting a religion, and how he's never doing that again... I rather like that line.

Ianto is basically not there. I mean there's a guy called Ianto who emerges sometimes, but mostly not.

Owen gets a ton of story. Very Oweny story.

So does Rhys.


Canon compatibility in terms of timeline is, as per usual, smudgy
and like I said, characters were a bit sideways
but is good.



I like 'Another Life' more because this one was full of icky.
But it really worked the ick.

(no subject)

Nightmares
being ate by shadows, turned 2d and disappeared from my feets on up, is plenty bad enough
but what keeps bugging me now I'm awake is the lingering suspicion dream-me behaved poorly.
Screaming, yelling, and trying to fast talk my way out of it are all well and good
but I suspect I was telling it who it would like to eat instead, and that... isn't.